Gibel sensatsii

The film takes place in an unnamed Capitalist country, a stand in mostly for the USA, where filthy rich capitalists try to squeeze as much profit from the worker and repress any revolt. An engineer , caught in this class maelstrom , invents a special Robot that hopefully will reduce workload for workers and gradually eliminate a capitalist market with the resultant cheap labor. But alas, the evil Monopoly men have other plans for him and his invention.

Even if you can accept the movie's ideology as a product of its time and place of origin, I hated the fact that there was absolutely no subtlety from an artistic point of view in spreading its message. Let's face it, this movie isn't giving Metropolis(1927) any competition. However, the movie makes up for it with genuinely good visual effects with the limited budget that they had. I liked the practical effects on the robots and the fact that they built so many units for use in the film. I think the effects overall have aged quite well.

Theorising that 'free labour' would destroy capitalism, engineer Jim Ripple (S.M. Vecheslov) creates giant mechanical workers. Human workers protest being displaced leading to a confrontation with the military, who try to use the robots as soldiers to supress the uprising. Despite purity of initial intent, Ripple soon breaks with workers (including his father) and becomes a tool of the military-industrial complex, only to be thwarted by the clever and resourceful proletariat. Although where the story occurs is never explicitly stated, resplendent military officers, top-hatted capitalists, glaring neon signs, and bourgeois dance clubs pretty much puts the pin in the USA (or perhaps the USSR's newly fascist neighbour to the west). The message is unsubtle, especially when the workers' protest is put down by gunfire in a scene similar to (but in much smaller scale) the massacre on the Odessa Steps in 'Battleship Potemkin' (1925). 'Loss of Sensation' is quite slow-moving at times, with a lengthy interlude at a nightclub (including a musical number), but the ending is worth waiting for. The robots are classic 1930's mechanical monsters (although they are a bit slow and lumbering to really be seen as a threat). Oddly, the robots are emblazoned with 'RUR' (for 'Ripple's Universal Robots'), despite the fact the story is not based on Karel Capek's famous 1920 play 'R.U.R' (Rossums Universal Robots) but rather the adapted from the Ukrainian novel 'Iron Riot' (1929). The acting is a bit melodramatic (consistent with the thickly laid-on message) but the robot effects are great (in a 'retro' sort of way - the robots could easily be on the cover of a 1930's 'Amazing Stories' magazine), as is the cinematography in general. There is an odd gimmick by which the robots are controlled by sound, which sets up a somewhat delirious scene where Ripple is surrounded by 'dancing' robots, while playing on his saxophone (strangely the scene is not set to sax music but rather to ominous orchestral music). Not many science fiction films were made in the USSR in the '30s (apparently the genre was frowned upon by the Party censors) but 'Loss of Sensation' may have gotten green-lighted because its 'triumph of the workers' message is pure Soviet ideological shtick (interestingly, at least one academic (David Christopher) has hypothesized that the film might be sneakily subversive, with Ripple representing Stalin and the robots representing workers abused under the emasculating cult of the Supreme Soviet). There appears to be a variety of translations and alternative titles on-line (the film is also known as 'RUR: The Robots of Jim Ripl'). I watched a subtitled version on You-tube that was reasonably good although the subtitles had a number of spelling and punctuation errors.

Jim Ripl (Sergei Vecheslov, who looks like Conrad Veidt), an engineer at a military industrial establishment, is accused by his fellow workers of being a traitor after he invents a child-sized robot capable of fulfilling almost any task. Although Ripl sees the creation as being beneficial to the worker, the workers themselves fear that robots will make their very existence redundant and destroy the little bot.

Six months later, Ripl is on the other side, unveiling an army of eight- foot high robots to the capitalist leaders of the establishment. Ripl still hopes to win his former colleagues over with his creations, but the leaders have different ideas…

This is a typically political Soviet sci-fi in which the invention of the robot is seen as taking the very purpose of the working classes away. It's surprising that, in an era in which the automation was still a work of fiction, there were such serious fears concerning the repercussions of replacing men with robots in the work place.

Naturally, this being the Communist Soviet Union, the whole thing is seen from the worker's perspective, with leadership figures seen as brutal and callous. From the very first shot, we see images of the working class sleeping in the streets and queuing at homeless shelters – and this is before the robots put them out of work!

This is a very bizarre film, and at time pretty amateurish. The robots don't look as bad as some of those in serials from around the same time, and the acting is adequate, but the direction is slack and cinematography is quite raw.

At least twice, the political ponderings are broken by musical numbers in a night club! And on the subject of music, Ripl uses a unique method of remote control for the robots here: a whistle and a saxophone! Fans of action though will be glad to know it's not all just class war dialogue, as the robots go crazy during the climax, killing and crushing anyone who gets in their way.

While this isn't exactly a forgotten classic, it's pretty unique and a worthy novelty for its historical, political and technical standing. Just don't expect it to come out on DVD any time soon!

Rather than rehash the detailed plot summary found in another IMDb review, let me just say, this is a beautifully photographed, fascinating piece of history. Highly recommended for robot aficionados, fans of unique historical science fiction and/or fans of nifty scifi set-pieces, props, and related special effects, those interested in propaganda film... As you can see, this movie could appeal to almost any serious fan of cinema. I've never seen anything quite like it. I don't really understand the 5 and 6 star reviews; it's far more worthy than that.

Note that as of January 2019 quite a good print of this film is available on DVD from Video Dimensions. Try Amazon.